{"id":14316,"date":"2022-07-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=14316"},"modified":"2022-09-16T09:05:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T07:05:00","slug":"pathological-liars-what-drives-them-to-lie-and-what-can-you-do-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/07\/04\/pathological-liars-what-drives-them-to-lie-and-what-can-you-do-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Pathological liars: What drives them to lie and what can you do about it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PATHOLOGICAL LIARS:<\/span><\/h3>\n\n

WHAT DRIVES THEM TO LIE AND WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?<\/h3>\n\n

From high-profile court cases to recent political scandals, lying is all over the news. A psychologist explains how to spot and deal with a habitual liar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

The label \u2018pathological liar\u2019 gets thrown around a lot, especially in the direction of politicians or celebrities. Although it isn\u2019t a formal psychiatric diagnosis, it is a recognised concept that psychologists and psychiatrists have been interested in for a long time, at least since 1891 when the German psychiatrist Anton Delbrueck coined the label Pseudologia fantastica <\/em>to describe several of his patients who told an astonishing amount of fantastical lies (other similar psychological terms include \u2018deception syndrome\u2019 and \u2018mythomania\u2019). So why do people do it? <\/p>\n\n

HOW CAN YOU SPOT A PATHOLOGICAL LIAR? <\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

While psychopaths and people with antisocial personality disorder can be inclined to excessive lying, most pathological liars are not psychopaths, nor do they necessarily have a personality disorder. Indeed, while psychopaths and people with an antisocial personality are typically manipulative and self-serving, pathological liars often lie for no apparent purpose. Another key feature of pathological lying, as opposed to being a common-or-garden compulsive liar, is that the lies are often particularly bizarre or far-fetched. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cWhile psychopaths and people with an antisocial personality are typically manipulative and self-serving, pathological liars often lie for no apparent purpose\u201d <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Consider the results of a recent survey carried out by two US psychologists \u2013 Dr Drew Curtis and Dr Christian Hart \u2013 who believe pathological lying should become a discrete psychiatric diagnosis. <\/p>\n\n

The pair asked hundreds of volunteers to complete several measures of lying behaviour and found that between 8 per cent and 13 per cent of them met the criteria for being a pathological liar. <\/p>\n\n

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WHY DO PATHOLOGICAL LIARS TELL FIBS? <\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

The details from the surveys fit in with some theories in scientific literature suggesting that pathological liars tell tall tales \u2013 especially of far-fetched past achievements or suffering, or grandiose social connections \u2013 as a kind of unconscious strategy to boost their fragile sense of self or low self-esteem. <\/p>\n\n

For instance, in 2007 a team of Canadian psychologists reported the case of \u2018Lorraine,\u2019 whose dramatic lies included a colleague sending her death threats, a friend developing a lesbian infatuation, a supposed death threat from a fianc\u00e9\u2019s ex-wife, and her fianc\u00e9\u2019s three-year-old setting fires in relatives\u2019 homes. The team, led by Dr Cheryl Birch, said that the pattern was characteristic of pathological lying because the lies were harmful to Lorraine (she actually ended up in a secure forensic unit) and they weren\u2019t inspired by any apparent clear motive \u2013 they seemed to be driven by a deeper psychological need to present herself as a hero or victim. <\/p>\n\n

In a case reported by a team of New York psychologists in 2015, a woman told her therapists she had made several suicide attempts. She also claimed her mother had been executed in California for killing her father and stepfather, that her brother and sister had been killed and buried in the backyard by her mother, and that she had two children, including one who was the product of a rape by one of her siblings. Subsequent investigations suggested none of this was true, except that she did have one son. This team, led by Dr Panagiota Korenis at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center, agreed with the other experts that habitual or compulsive lying of this kind usually emerges as a \u201cmeans to assert autonomy in the face of lack of self-esteem\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

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HOW SHOULD YOU DEAL WITH A PATHOLOGICAL LIAR? <\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

When it comes to coping with a pathological liar, it\u2019s perhaps worth remembering the likely cause of the person\u2019s tendency to tell so many far-fetched stories. While their behaviour might be irritating and even cause serious harm (especially when it comes to false allegations), if it\u2019s driven by a deep-seated insecurity, then you might be wise to see it as a call for help, and to resist the urge to confront the person too forcefully or without sympathy. <\/p>\n\n

If the pathological liar in your life is someone you care about, perhaps you could help them find more productive ways to address their low self-esteem and anxiety, or even to come to terms with a difficult past, if that\u2019s relevant. Although research into effective treatments is largely lacking (partly because \u2018pathological liar\u2019 has yet to be recognised as a formal diagnosis), a sensible step could be to gently encourage the pathological liar you know to seek professional mental health support. <\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
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\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Visit the BBC\u2019s Reality Check<\/em> website at bit.ly\/reality_check_<\/a> <\/span>or follow them on Twitter @BBCRealityCheck<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

by DR CHRISTIAN JARRETT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

(@Psych_Writer<\/em><\/a>) Christian is a cognitive neuroscientist and psychology writer. His latest book is Be Who You Want: Unlocking The Science Of Personality Change<\/em> (\u00a314.99, Robinson). <\/em><\/p>\n\n

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